BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
37 
covered with the ordinary lichens fastened to the nest proper by a few 
cobwebs and a secretion from the builders. In external diameter, it 
measured one and three-fourths inches ; in height, two inches ; in internal 
diameter, three-fourths of an inch, and nearly as much in depth of cavity. 
The nest being finished, which is the work of five or six days, but a 
day or two elapse, and the female is ready to deposit her eggs. The latter, 
to the number of two, are laid in as many consecutive days. Incubation 
immediately ensues, and continues for a period of eight days. Its duties 
devolve upon the female, who sits with commendable patience until her 
task is accomplished. While thus employed, her mate stands guard, or is 
abroad in quest of food. If any attempt is made to interfere with the 
nest while he is on duty, the most menacing gestures and loudest 
remonstrances are indulged in. Should these not liave the desired effect 
of frightening away the intruder, he darts at his foe with wide, open bill, 
and endeavors to inflict summary punishment. He is so persistent in these 
attacks that it is often very hard to beat him off. The female, on the 
contrary, is of a more passive nature, quietly keeping the nest, although 
not unmindful of the proceedings being enacted, and only venturing there- 
from when danger is imminent. These assaults continue while the nest is 
endangered, and even for a short time afterwards, when the birds retire to 
a neighboring tree to brood over their niisha23S, and consider what is best 
to be done. 
The young are objects of sjDecial interest to the jiarents, who render 
them every needed attention. When one is absent for food, the other stays 
at liome to protect them from danger. Their food consists of a prepared 
mixture of nectar and soft insects, which they j:)rocure by thrusting their 
bills into the mouths of their parents. It was formerly supposed that this 
diet consisted entirely of the honey of flowers, but this opinion of the 
ancients was not wholly a fallacy, since a j^ortion of nectar is taken with 
the insects, and supjfiies to the Humming-bird that kind of nourishment 
which the larger insectivorous birds derive from fruit. When eleven days 
old, these tiny creatures, in their beautiful robes of green, quit the nest, but 
